Says the country needs to attract more workers to the organized sector, which employs less than 10% of workforce
Faced with rising unemployment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday called for labour law reforms and more investment in labour-intensive industries.
“We need to consider the possible role of some of our labour laws contributing to rigidities in the labour market, which hurt the growth of employment on a large scale,” he said at the 43rd Indian Labour Conference (ILC) in New Delhi. “Is it possible that our best intentions for labour are not actually met by laws that sound progressive on paper but end up hurting the very workers they are meant to protect?”
India has a 460 million-strong labour force. The government pegged unemployment at 9.4% earlier this month, a 1.2% rise from 2004-05, when the last comprehensive employment survey was carried out.
Singh said the country needs to attract more workers to the organized sector, which currently employs less than 10% of the workforce.
The ILC, the Prime Minister added, should also look at ways to improve the living standards of workers in micro- and small-scale sectors.
“Our regulatory framework in the labour sector should encourage investment in labour-intensive industries,” Singh said.
The cabinet will soon consider a new employment policy focused on promoting labour-intensive industries, Mint reported on 19 October.
The policy proposes to make it mandatory for state-owned companies to measure the benefits of proposed investments in terms of how many jobs they will create directly or indirectly.
“We are soon going to circulate a cabinet note on the new employment policy,” labour secretary Prabhat Chaturvedi said on the sideline of the ILC.
The two-day conference is focusing on three issues: the economic downturn and its impact on jobs; contract labour; and employment generation and skill development.
Labour and employment minister Mallikarjun Kharge said there is need for “bringing labour into the centre stage in economic and social policymaking”.
His ministry, he said, is working on schemes for developing demand-driven short-term training courses to impart skills that will help workers get jobs. It also plans to set up 1,500 Industrial Training Institutes and 5,000 Skill Development Centres with private participation.
E. Balaji, director and president of human resource and employment tracking firm Ma Foi Randstad, said labour laws are not in tune with reality.
“Contract labour law needs to change to help the industry face less trouble from the bureaucracy. In the age of globalization, the government needs to redefine what is (a) core and (a) non-core job to help mobility of workforce,” he said.
Balaji said the government should focus on labour-intensive manufacturing to create jobs.
Reacting to concerns raised by Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh president Girish Awasthi on rising prices of essential commodities, the Prime Minister said the government is trying to reduce the inflation rate. “We have difficulties but we shall overcome (them),” he said.
India’s food inflation was 10.3% for the week ended 6 November.
source: http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/23222711/Prime-Minister-wants-labour-la.html?atype=tp
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
‘Tamil Nadu pioneers in implementing welfare schemes for labourers'
Tamil Nadu has taken the lead in implementing welfare schemes for labourers in unorganised sector, said T. M. Anbarasan, Minister for Labour Welfare and Employment, here on Tuesday.
He distributed benefits worth Rs. 43.33 lakh to 1,817 labourers belonging to welfare boards from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts. He also gave away equipment to barbers, washermen and goldsmiths.
The Minister said there were 33 welfare boards for labourers belonging to unorganised sector of which 14 are attached to labour department. Nearly 46 lakh workers have registered with these boards. In the last four and a half years, the government has allotted Rs. 1,000 crore for the welfare of these labourers. In the last one year, benefits worth Rs. 174 crore have been disbursed.
The Minister said labourers in unorganised sector account for 92 per cent in Tamil Nadu while the rest are in organised sector. Data entry has been made in computers for the 46 lakh members of these boards.
There are no registration and renewal fees for them. They would be registered within thirty days of their submission of applications and within sixty days, they would be eligible for monetary benefits. Most of the labourers in the unorganised sector are beneficiaries under the Kalaignar's insurance scheme for life saving treatment, the Minister said.
U. Mathivanan, Dairy Development Minister, said services of barbers, washermen and tailors are necessary for a civilised life. They have been uplifted and the welfare boards were instrumental in their development.
M. Chandraseakaran, Collector, P. Karupusamy, Additional Labour Commissioner, Poondi Kalaivanan, Member of Cotton Advisory Board and R. Shankar, Vice Chairman, Tiruvarur Municipality, spoke.
Agency workers get poorer pay, employment conditions -survey
Workers under agency contractors in Australia receive significantly poorer pay and employment conditions than those under direct-hire arrangements, according to a new study.
A research by Dr Underhill from the Deakin University Business School shows that host employers assume limited responsibility for the conditions of workers they employ through agency employers, including whether their conditions satisfy minimum labour rights or occupational health and safety (OHS) standards.
While the same rights and protection should apply to temporary agency workers and direct-hire employees, Dr Underhill argues that in practice "the triangular nature of agency employment creates barriers to its successful application", with agency workers being employed by one party, the agency, while their pay and conditions are substantially influenced by another, the host employer.
At a time when temporary agency work is expanding, Dr Underhill proposes that there is a need to reconsider the legal responsibilities for agency worker protection so that host employers have the same responsibilities for applying employment standards as they do for their own staff.
According to her, ss the ILO and EU found, compromises and tradeoffs are required in the conflicted area of minimum standards for agency workers because the standards are hotly contested in a context where "the agency business model rests upon the supply of labour at a cost lower than that which the host can achieve."
Dr Underhill said, under the Fair Work Act 2009 the responsibilities imposed on the common law employer - the agency - have only limited practical application to the host.
Agency employees face job loss for raising a grievance, are required to accept any job placement to maintain an income, are geographically dispersed with transitory job locations, and have little power to enforce their few employment entitlements.
The study is based on Australian data from relevant industrial tribunals, court cases, a survey of 147 agency workers and five focus groups of agency workers and representative union officials.
It also relies on a sample of workers' compensation claim files of injured agency and comparable direct-hire workers (198 of each) that have been investigated by insurance claim agents.
Unorganised sector a major challenge: Kharge
Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge said the major challenge facing India today was that of the unorganised sector.
He was speaking at the second World Social Security Summit organised by the International Social Security Association in Capetown, South Africa, on Friday. Mr. Kharge is heading a six-member high-level delegation from India, which held discussions with several Labour Ministers of the nearly 120 countries participating in the meet.
Mr. Kharge said India was committed to social security programmes and had introduced several forward-looking legislation such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, housing programmes for those below the poverty line, old age pension, the RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojna), the Right to Education, the mid-day meal scheme, etc. He emphasised that the social security schemes in India had the full support of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Ministry of Finance.
CRUCIAL TO GROWTH
Mr. Kharge said: “Our major challenge remains the unorganised sector where around 430 million workers are employed in a total workforce of around 450 million. By their sheer numbers, this segment is crucial to India's continuing growth in the post crisis recovering period. While it is a fact that India's economy was less impacted upon by the financial crisis, we have not remained insulated to its consequences. We have started a slew of programmes to address the social security issues in the unorganised sector.”
The employees in the unorganised sector, despite comprising a majority of the working class in the country, mostly remain in low-paid insecure jobs, have little access to institutionalised social security and are the most vulnerable to the negative impact of economic slowdowns in terms of job loss and wage cuts. The government has since introduced health insurance, general insurance and a pension scheme for those serving in the unorganised sector.
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
“The process of economic liberalisation undertaken in India since 1991 has resulted in rapid economic growth but we are still addressing the challenge of making this growth story an inclusive one. Only when that is achieved, we will allow ourselves the luxury of calling it a complete success story,” Mr. Kharge said.
During the interaction with the audience, which included delegations from 120 countries, he highlighted India's commitment to the social security programmes and the positive impact of the RSBY and the MGNREGA schemes. “India's social security programmes enjoy a strong political will and the total support of the government machinery.”
BUDGETARY SUPPORT
He noted that all governments must support social security measures by providing necessary budgetary support. In the light of suggestions by some panellists for contributory mechanisms to make the schemes viable and self-sustaining, he said the government's primary support was necessary to ensure that the social security benefits reached the poorest of the poor.
On the sidelines of the world meet, Mr. Kharge met his counterparts from South Africa, Zambia, Yemen, Swaziland, Samoa and Guernsey and exchanged views on issues pertaining to social security policies and their medium and long-term impact on the financial health of the countries.
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